28 research outputs found
Extraction of airway trees using multiple hypothesis tracking and template matching
Knowledge of airway tree morphology has important clinical applications in
diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. We present an automatic
tree extraction method based on multiple hypothesis tracking and template
matching for this purpose and evaluate its performance on chest CT images. The
method is adapted from a semi-automatic method devised for vessel segmentation.
Idealized tubular templates are constructed that match airway probability
obtained from a trained classifier and ranked based on their relative
significance. Several such regularly spaced templates form the local hypotheses
used in constructing a multiple hypothesis tree, which is then traversed to
reach decisions. The proposed modifications remove the need for local
thresholding of hypotheses as decisions are made entirely based on statistical
comparisons involving the hypothesis tree. The results show improvements in
performance when compared to the original method and region growing on
intensity images. We also compare the method with region growing on the
probability images, where the presented method does not show substantial
improvement, but we expect it to be less sensitive to local anomalies in the
data.Comment: 12 pages. Presented at the MICCAI Pulmonary Image Analysis Workshop,
Athens, Greece, 201
Transfer learning for multicenter classification of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a lung disease which can be
quantified using chest computed tomography (CT) scans. Recent studies have
shown that COPD can be automatically diagnosed using weakly supervised learning
of intensity and texture distributions. However, up till now such classifiers
have only been evaluated on scans from a single domain, and it is unclear
whether they would generalize across domains, such as different scanners or
scanning protocols. To address this problem, we investigate classification of
COPD in a multi-center dataset with a total of 803 scans from three different
centers, four different scanners, with heterogenous subject distributions. Our
method is based on Gaussian texture features, and a weighted logistic
classifier, which increases the weights of samples similar to the test data. We
show that Gaussian texture features outperform intensity features previously
used in multi-center classification tasks. We also show that a weighting
strategy based on a classifier that is trained to discriminate between scans
from different domains, can further improve the results. To encourage further
research into transfer learning methods for classification of COPD, upon
acceptance of the paper we will release two feature datasets used in this study
on http://bigr.nl/research/projects/copdComment: Accepted at Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatic
Whole grain-rich diet reduces body weight and systemic low-grade inflammation without inducing major changes of the gut microbiome: a randomised cross-over trial
Objective To investigate whether a whole grain diet alters the gut microbiome and insulin sensitivity, as well as biomarkers of metabolic health and gut functionality. Design 60 Danish adults at risk of developing metabolic syndrome were included in a randomised cross-over trial with two 8-week dietary intervention periods comprising whole grain diet and refined grain diet, separated by a washout period of ≥6 weeks. The response to the interventions on the gut microbiome composition and insulin sensitivity as well on measures of glucose and lipid metabolism, gut functionality, inflammatory markers, anthropometry and urine metabolomics were assessed. Results 50 participants completed both periods with a whole grain intake of 179±50 g/day and 13±10 g/day in the whole grain and refined grain period, respectively. Compliance was confirmed by a difference in plasma alkylresorcinols (p<0.0001). Compared with refined grain, whole grain did not significantly alter glucose homeostasis and did not induce major changes in the faecal microbiome. Also, breath hydrogen levels, plasma short-chain fatty acids, intestinal integrity and intestinal transit time were not affected. The whole grain diet did, however, compared with the refined grain diet, decrease body weight (p<0.0001), serum inflammatory markers, interleukin (IL)-6 (p=0.009) and C-reactive protein (p=0.003). The reduction in body weight was consistent with a reduction in energy intake, and IL-6 reduction was associated with the amount of whole grain consumed, in particular with intake of rye. Conclusion Compared with refined grain diet, whole grain diet did not alter insulin sensitivity and gut microbiome but reduced body weight and systemic low-grade inflammation
Implementation and organization of lung cancer screening
CT screening for lung cancer is now being implemented in the US and China on a widespread national scale but not in Europe so far. The review gives a status for the implementation process and the hurdles to overcome in the future. It also describes the guidelines and requirements for the structure and components of high quality CT screening programs. These are essential in order to achieve a successful program with the fewest possible harms and a possible mortality benefit like that documented in the American National Lung Screening Trial (NLST). In addition the importance of continued research in CT screening methods is described and discussed with focus on the great potential to further improve this method in the future for the benefit of patients and society
Smoking cessation and lung cancer screening
Smoking behavior may have a substantial influence on the overall effect of lung cancer screening. Non-randomized studies of smoking behavior during screening have indicated that computer tomography (CT) screening induces smoking cessation. Randomized studies have further elaborated that this effect has to do with participation in screening alone and not dependent on the CT scan. Participants in both CT and control arm in randomized screening trials had higher smoking abstinence rate compared to that of the general population. A positive screening test seems to further promote smoking cessation and decrease smoking relapse rate. Also low smoking dependency and high motivation to quit smoking at baseline predicted smoking abstinence in screening trials. Lung cancer screening therefore seems to be a teachable moment for smoking cessation. Targeted smoking cessation counselling should be an integrated part of future lung cancer screening trials